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Megaupload Data Seizure

Megaupload Data Seizure

EFF formally requested the preservation of the data seized when the U.S. government shut down Megaupload.com and related sites in January of 2012, notifying the court and attorneys involved in the case that Megaupload’s innocent users deserve a fair process to control and retrieve their lawful material.

Instead of assisting the innocents caught up in the seizure, the U.S government summarily announced that it had finished its examination of Megaupload’s servers and announced that the companies that owned those servers – Carpathia and Cogent – were free to delete the contents. Thankfully, both hosting services have agreed not to destroy users' data for the time being, and it appears that Megaupload is trying in good faith to help users get access.

Additionally, Carpathia Hosting created a website at www.megaretrieval.com allowing Megaupload’s lawful customers to contact EFF and provide information about the scope of the issue and the material made unavailable by the seizure. If you believe you are one of these users, based in the United States, and are looking for legal help retrieving your data, please email your contact information to megauploadmissing@eff.org.

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The hearing should be broader than what the DOJ is proposing, said Julie Samuels, an EFF lawyer. Whether Goodwin has property controlled by the DOJ is "not the be all and end all of what's at issue here," she said. "We've said from the beginning the government has responsibility when...

The EFF also said that “the government … reviewed the content” of Goodwin’s files in what it says is an attempt to “shift focus to Mr. Goodwin, trying to distract both the press and the court from the government’s failure to take any steps … to protect the property rights...

WIRED reports that Julie Samuels, an Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney representing an old Megaupload user, has been informed that return of data “may require the testimony of numerous witnesses, including potential expert witnesses.” That’s the ruling from the only case concerning Megaupload data retrieval yet to reach the courts.

Federal prosecutors are proposing a process that would make it essentially impossible for former Megaupload users to recover their data following the government’s seizure of the file-sharing service’s servers and domain names in January as part of its prosecution of a criminal copyright infringement indictment of Megaupload’s employees.
That’s according...

But EFF's Samuels says it's the government who has some explaining to do. "The government's approach should terrify any user or provider of cloud computer services," Samuels told Ars by e-mail. "The government apparently searched through the data it seized for one purpose, in order to use it against someone...

"In the past, courts have required the government, when executing digital searches and seizures, to be mindful of and segregate third-party data to protect privacy concerns. We think the same principles should apply to protect property concerns as well. More and more people use the cloud to store their digital...

"It makes little sense for the MPAA, or MegaUpload, or Carpathia, or even the government -- despite its actions otherwise -- to prevent third parties access to their legal property," Julie Samuels, staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told CNET this afternoon. "Not only does it harm those individual...

EFF argues that Goodwin needs details about how the government conducted its raid to make his case that the government's actions violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Moreover, EFF points out that "the public also has a strong interest in understanding the government process in executing search warrants on cloud computing...

In the ongoing case involving Kyle Goodwin trying to get back the content that he backed up via Megaupload and lost as a result of the US taking down the site, the EFF (representing Goodwin) has asked the court to unseal the initial seizure warrants that the US relied on...

Yesterday, EFF, on behalf of its client Kyle Goodwin, filed a brief proposing a process for the Court in the Megaupload case to hold the government accountable for the actions it took (and failed to take) when it shut down Megaupload's service and denied third parties like Mr...